Darkon provides a fascinating look at a subculture most of us never knew existed.
Comment
03/10/08
Darkon (2007)
89 %
Reviews Counted: 18 Fresh: 16 Rotten:2 Average Rating: 7.6/10
Runtime: 90 mins
Synopsis: Go inside the fantasy world of Darkon with this documentary. A group of Baltimore residents adds excitement to their lives with this role-playing game that allows them to act as medieval soldiers and princes. [More]
Genre: Education/General Interest
Director: Andrew Neel, Luke Meyer
Producer: Ethan Palmer, Tom Davis, Christopher Kikis, Thoma Kikis, Nicholas Levis, Cherise Wolas, Alan Zelenetz
Composer: Jonah Rapino
Producer: Ethan Palmer, Tom Davis, Christopher Kikis, Thoma Kikis, Nicholas Levis, Cherise Wolas, Alan Zelenetz
Composer: Jonah Rapino
Reviews
1 - 18 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Joins the ranks of movies like Hoop Dreams and Murderball as one of the great documentary dissections of how Americans play.
11/12/07
By approaching the subject without a sense of ironic distance, Neel and Meyer get at something elemental, a variation of the American Dream at work, in which everyone can live out their life as they see it, even if that's as a medieval elf.
10/26/07
Top Critic
Eloquent and occasionally touching, Darkon is haphazardly photographed but unfailingly generous toward subjects who exhibit an astonishing degree of self-awareness.
09/22/07
Top Critic
Neel and Meyer approach their subjects with open minds. Running around Baltimore in medieval armor isn't everyone's chalice of wine, they seem to be saying -- but who are we to judge?
09/14/07
There should be plenty of material here. But all we see are average men and women looking for an escape from their boring jobs and disappointing home lives.
09/14/07
Empowered as they are, it's hard to take this motley crew seriously when they spit medieval maxims with soccer goals in the background, but the filmmakers approach their subjects with humanity.
09/11/07
The film perceptively addresses the intertwining of fantasy and reality, which eventually seems so pronounced that one senses players are acting out their dreams of either being, or striking back against, bullies.
09/06/07
There are lessons to be learned here, not the least of which is that you should never trust elf mercenaries, no matter how much you pay them.
02/22/07
How can you not like a movie where a guy says, completely without irony, "During my third campout, I was assassinated seven times."
02/08/07
This full-length movie becomes quite wearing. The players are entitled to dignity and respect, of course, but how many of us would spend 89 minutes at a party listening to one of them talk about Darkon? That's pretty much what you get here.
02/02/07
This low-budget documentary by Luke Meyer and Andrew Neel spends three years chronicling Darkon, a medieval role-playing group whose members dress up in homemade costumes and chase each other around fields in suburban Baltimore.
02/01/07
Top Critic
For all its hipster appeal, it's hard to imagine anyone who would not be charmed by this ode to nonconformity, a humanistic, thoughtful, and entertaining film that won this year's SXSW Film Fest's Audience Award.
06/26/06
A clear-eyed and oddly touching docudocu about a gaggle of Baltimoreans who dress up in home-made medieval garb and chase each other around soccer fields and meadows.
06/20/06
Top Critic
A documentary that peers casually into the inner workings of a game and lets us laugh at -- er, with? -- the participants.
04/03/06
You won't leave this film with a full grasp of, say, how a Darkonian knows when he's mortally wounded, but you'll relate to this exuberant subculture more intimately than you'd perhaps expect.
03/24/06
Darkon works as a fascinating and colorful documentary about an endearingly bizarre game and as a "can't wait to see who wins" sports film. (And as a nifty little comedy, too, actually.)
03/17/06
It’s an epic fantasy adventure with loads of laughs, starring a bunch of people who, believe it or not, you wish you were.
03/15/06
1 - 18 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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